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The ‘D’ section of AD&D’s Monster Manual is all killer, no filler, and easily the most deadly, dreaded, and damned dangerous alphabetical group in the whole game (ok, so maybe the Lawful Good dolphins aren’t so great?). Fitting, considering the name of the game, and also that the alphabetically appropriate Demogorgon head the demons. Demogorgon is large and in charge, a nasty piece work with 200 HP (I wonder if this ever annoys Asmodeus, who has 1HP less than his demonic counterpart). Despite his intimidating appearance, he’s no beatstick. His heads have combined and individual mind control powers that have a good chance of dominating anyone who gets close enough to determine whether they are more baboon or mandrill-like. His spell-like abilities are versatile and powerful and he uses them with supra-genius intelligence. And if it comes to fisticuffs or the tails-and-tentacle equivalent, he strikes with rotting disease and energy drain.

Welcome to the ‘D-section’, dumbshits.

Drawing inspiration from the 1e MM entry, I pulled put the following elements to base cults and superstitions around –

Rule through personal power (how he retains his title, by being the strongest and cleverest of demons)

Before the dawn of civilisation, men recognised and encountered Demogorgon every day. The Prince of Demons stalked the shadows of the dense jungle with watching eyes and bared teeth. He lurked under impassable sea with poisoned spine and grasping tentacle. He slithered in the pitch black depths of the deep caverns, brewing venom and disease. Even in the heart of man, Demogorgon has a dwelling place, and from there he urges man’s darker primaeval instincts, encouraging him turn on his fellows and seek power through violence and exploitation.

Man encountered Demogorgon at the fringes of his world, and in his foolish pride to define all that he found in the world, named Demogorgon, the first demon. But the act of naming only bound them closer together. It infuriates Demogorgon to hear a human speak his name. There are many humans and similar on many worlds, and Demogorgon is very, very angry.

Demogorgon hates the civilised humanoid races in general, and humanity in particular. He despises them for their pride, hope and ambition, and delights in their terror, helplessness and pain. He scorns the worship of humanoids, but in rare times has been known to grant boons to supplicants and encourage their worship for a time before turning against them. There are many whispered legends of of heretic clerics who abandoned the gods of their peoples and turned, in their selfishness, to the worship of Demogorgon to increase their personal power. Yet those with knowledge of the nature of demons, be they tribal witch-doctors or learned sages, that Demogorgon despises worship from humanlike beings, has nothing but contempt for his clerics, and grants his dark miracles for a time, only to punish the offending priest once the wretch becomes secure in his power.

In some arcane demonological treatises, Demogorgon is referred to as The Child, and given a female pronoun. In the annotated grimoire Art of the Infernal Intelligencier, Theravad Sthsjan, Illuminate of the 9th Circle and personal diviner to the Tyrant of Thrask, describes his conversations with the angelic girl-child Demogorgon, who he conjured within a special pentacle. From these conversations Theravad gleaned much forbidden knowledge that was used to the advantage of Thrask, and moreover his own personal power, including words of power to turn the minds of political dissidents and to command the vicious wyverns of the mountains to join the Tyrant’s army. Theravad lived many years past the normal human lifespan to see Thrask sacked and burned by his many foes who joined forces against his dark magics, yet his body could not be found among the ruins of the once-great city-state.

Metzner’s Immortals Demogorgon is hardcore powerful, but also more intriguing.

Occult texts which recognise Demogorgon male and female aspect typically present her as hermaphroditic, emphasising the dualistic nature of the entity. Incorporating the powers of both sexes, they speculate that Demogorgon spawns a terrible brood of monsters from her lair in the Abyss.

Demogorgon favours twins. In some communities, one of a pair of newborn twins will be put to death for fear of attracting his attention. In others, a woman who bears twins is persecuted as a witch. Although this superstition causes great pain and harm to innocents, there may be some justification for it. Several demonological texts recommend the sacrifice of a pair of twins of at least six years of age as part of a ritual to summon the Prince of Demons to the material plane. The sacrifice of twins, along with precious materials and more noisome artefacts, is mentioned to increase the likelihood that Demogorgon will be favourably disposed towards the summoner.

In a region where the local people secretly practice the exposure of unwanted children, they tell of Demogorgon, the demon-child. This evil spirit hides in wild places and cries out in distress like a human baby. The local people are suspicious of outsiders, especially clerics and paladins, for they cleave to many ancient pagan traditions. They will warn travellers that this demon can make an uncannily convincing impression, but the cries in the wilderness should under no circumstances be investigated, for Demogorgon will lure you to your doom.

A baby born with two heads is seen as a terrible omen and a sign that Demogorgon has cursed the community for some offence (or more likely, simply out of his normal malice). Some people slay the child and bury it in sanctified ground and hope for the best. Yet more common is the belief that if the two-headed child is nurtured, praised and given the best food and comforts the community has to offer, the Prince of Demons shall be appeased, and stay his wrath as long as the child lives. The child will mature quickly in intelligence and speak prophecy from one head, and tell of the location of hidden treasures with the other, though the heads will often bicker amongst themselves and contradict each other. Most such children perish nonetheless, and elders quick to blame future misfortune on this. However, if the child sent by Demogorgon is properly cared for and ceremoniously dedicated to the demon prince, it will grow into an ettin, its supernatural intelligence diminishing as its muscles grow. This strong monster will glut itself on the resources of the village for years but also use its might to defend it from threats, until a short time after maturity, when its taste for manflesh overwhelms its last vestige of humanity.

Two-faced instigator of strife and enemy of mankind, Demogorgon is invoked by oppressor and oppressed alike. Haughty kings and fiery demagogues are compared to him in chronicles, for their power of violence and manipulation. ‘The speaker held the crowd in his thrall, as if under the watch of The Dark Lady, and with poisonous words whipped them into a frenzy against their rightful liege’ (Melkiah of Orryane, Fall of the House of Atriesi), ‘…and in those days following the Cerithian War, Tiranpolis descended into anarchy and bloodshed, for the gaze of The Prince of Demons was upon them, and made them forget themselves, turning brother against brother, father against son, servant against master’ (Algernon the Azure Sage, An Account of the Desagan Peninsula during the Fourth Age).

A scrawled note on a forbidden tome of occult lore recounts a legend that Demogorgon was once tricked by a mischievous godling into looking into his own eyes and has ever since been afflicted with a suicidal mental anguish, in which he lures powerful mortals to his lair in the Abyss and goads them to destroy him. A latter-day annotation points out the difficultly of distinguishing between sane and insane demons, and states drily that whatever his mental state, Demogorgon clearly does not hesitate to slaughter any presumptuous heroes who approach him.

An examination of the lairs of lizardmen reveals evidence that Demogorgon is known to them as a baneful entity who is supplicated out of fear. However, among larger, domineering lizard kings, adventurers who have escaped captivity, have testified to the popularity of an active cult of Demogorgon. The lizard king cult demands ritual human sacrifice and the veneration of mutant lizard men as elites second only to the lizard kings themselves. The aristocracy and shamans of these evil tribes are dominated by two-headed mutants.

FF lizard men rule

Another scaly race that worships Demogorgon is the Yuan-Ti. Originally a tropical empire of humans, the Yuan-Ti revered serpents and the ruins of their cities testify to their veneration of an entire pantheon of various snake-creatures, including the spirit naga and lamia, which were worshipped as demi-gods living on this plane, and the Type V demons as spirits of war and guardians. At the head of this pantheon was Demogorgon, depicted alternately in male and female aspects. As much as she detested their human forms, Demogorgon carefully nurtured the empire of Yuan-Ti through centuries of glory and hubris, before fouling their blood and twisting their minds and bodies into something more worthy of her patronage. Although now a fallen power, few among the Yuan-Ti, lament their lost humanity, preferring to revel in the strength The Dark Lady has granted them.

It is known among wise sea-faring folk that Ixitxachtil serve The Bane of Souls, and it is rumoured that a hapless victim threatened by these foul creatures can declare allegiance to Demogorgon in front of their priests and have their life spared. Such individuals are enchanted to breathe water and put to work as slaves or spies for the demon rays. The occasional sole survivor of a shipwreck, who returns to his people after some time when his fellows have perished, is sometimes looked at askance because of this legend. At least one innocent man is known to have survived a wreck only to be drowned by his neighbours, to ascertain whether he was a spy enchanted to breathe water.

In grimoires and demonological texts, Demogorgon is noted as one of the most difficult demon lords to bind and command, and recommends that anyone attempting so spare no expense in both their ritual materials and offerings of tribute to The Bane of Souls. Many include a cautionary tale of some of his victims. Yet the Prince of Demons has much to offer the intelligent summoner. According to the Demononicon Demogorgon’s service can include the following:

Curses of ruin to a rival

To be feared and obeyed by those around you

Place another person or monster under your total mental control

To cure or bestow insanity, or to perceive the hidden truths in the ramblings of lunatics

Sow strife and discord among your enemies

Command over reptiles or sea creatures

The ability to speak the language of serpents

Immunity to poison or disease

Polymorph ability to snake, lizard or octopus

Instruction in the casting of masterful illusions

When summoning Demogorgon, aside from the typical trappings, the summoner is advised to additionally furnish the summoning chamber with certain items to increase the chance of success, such as:

Sacrifice of human twins

The body of a baby who has died of exposure

The hides of giant serpents and lizards, or statues of same worked in precious materials

Lizard man teeth

Banderlog heads

Broken holy swords

Snake venom

Ixitxcachtil spines

Defiled icons of Orcus

The thigh bone of a man or woman who has killed their brother or sister

One ambitious sorcerer, Derrash Mak of the Black Invocations, had particular success when he fashioned an effigy of the Prince of Demons using the body of a giant lizard, giant serpent tails and giant octopus tentacles, mounted with banderlog heads. This was done in a similar manner to the preparation of a flesh golem. Demogorgon manifested within the effigy and spoke to him, divulging many secrets. Although the fate of Derrash Mak is lost to time, legend has it that the effigy itself escaped, possessed by demonic malice, into the catacombs of the city in which he dwelled.

That about wraps up my riff on Demogorgon, though I’m sure I’ll have more to add on it sooner or later, but if you need more I’d be amiss if I didn’t also refer you to this, Zak S.’s meta (and metal) take on the God of Total Party Kills.